How to conduct a Narrative Policy Framework study

The Narrative Policy Framework has a growing number of researchers seeking to apply the framework in policy process scholarship. This article is intended to assist those interested in conducting an NPF study that is ‘clear enough to be wrong’ (Sabatier, 2000). While graduate programs offer critical methodological training, this article focuses on the specific application of the NPF to research inquiries about the role of policy narratives in the policy process. We approach our discussion by examining various decisions in the research process and include a detailed discussion of specifying the model and obtaining narrative data. We also point out areas for further investigation.     

Social Development Quartet: Emotion Socialization in the Context of Psychopathology and Risk

An introduction is provided to this Social Development Quartet in which the articles focus on parent emotion socialization in the context of psychopathology and risk. In two articles, the samples of children and/or adolescents have a psychiatric diagnosis [oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or depressive disorder]. The other two articles feature samples in which children and families have experienced serious risks [exposure to inter‐parental violence (IPV) or maternal incarceration]. The articles in this Social Development Quartet extend our knowledge of the impact of parental emotion socialization practices to contexts in which children and parents experience higher than normative risks. The work reported in these articles builds upon research on emotion socialization in normative contexts, illustrating the buffering effects of supportive parenting as well as its limits.     

Conflicts of Interest in Academic Research: Policies,Processes, and Attitudes

Few studies have examined academic researchers' understandings of or attitudes toward conflict of interest policies even though these understandings and attitudes represent a crucial component of both compliance and educational efforts. This study reports the results of a large-scale, cross-sectional survey of research faculty at the nine campuses of the University of California regarding their understandings of and attitudes toward campus conflict of interest policies. We gathered information on their general assessments of investigators with financial ties to industry sponsors and reactions to the process of implementing conflict of interest policies at their respective campuses. We surveyed 1,971 faculty members from the nine-campus University of California system and had 779 responses (39% response rate). The sampled faculty were in the ten departments with the most number of financial disclosures at each campus. We utilized the WebSurveyor software to create a secure, online, 21-item survey. Our study reveals faculty with complex, sometimes contradictory, feelings about academic-industry relationships and highlights perceived gaps in policy and process. Most respondents were concerned about unlimited financial relationships, but a sizable number also viewed campus policies as irrelevant. Some expressed considerable anger over the process of policy implementation, rejecting the policies on the basis of professional and individual self-determination and moral integrity. Our study suggests the need for renewed efforts to encourage awareness of the relevance of conflict of interest policies for all faculty, new efforts to increase understanding of the situational nature of conflicts of interest, and a reexamination of the processes of policy implementation at the campus level.     

Writing Disability History: problems, perspectives and sources

This paper discusses current trends in writing disability and identifies problems inherent in the prevalent focus on history of institutional treatment of impairment and disability, both in their validity as history and in their lack of contribution to the emancipatory dimension of disability studies. It is suggested that a broader view of disability history might be achieved by examination of other perspectives regarding disability than the institutional and identify two other perspectives, vernacular and experiential. The source material of these is often quite unlike that of institutional history, and identifies some potential risks in their interpretation. It suggests that investigators of history identify the perspectives present in the sources that they use as a means of reducing the risk of interpretive fallacies. The potential contribution of microhistory is also discussed.     

Depressive Symptoms,Acute Alcohol Intoxication,and Risk Rationale Effects on Men’s Condom Use Resistance

This study examined the role of depressive symptoms, acute intoxication, and risk rationale in men’s use of condom use resistance (CUR) tactics in an experimental study. Participants included 313 heterosexual male, nonproblem drinkers, ages 21 to 30. Participants were randomized to one of four beverage conditions: no alcohol, placebo, low (.04%) alcohol dose, or high (.08%) alcohol dose. They read an eroticized scenario depicting a consensual sexual encounter with a female partner who requested a condom to prevent either pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (risk rationale) and then indicated their intentions to use 10 different CUR tactics. Hypotheses related to the pharmacological, dosage, and expectancy effects of alcohol were tested in a generalized linear model. In intoxicated (.04% and .08%) men who were given a pregnancy risk rationale, depressive symptoms were associated with stronger intentions to use CUR tactics than in sober (control and placebo) men. Men who received a high alcohol dose (.08%) and who were given a pregnancy risk rationale reported higher intentions to use CUR tactics than those who received a lower alcohol dose (.04%). Findings suggest that the pharmacological effects of alcohol on men’s likelihood to resist condoms vary by the saliency of the risk rationale and mood-related variables.     

The use of vignettes to empower effective responses to attempted sexual assault

Objective: Women assertively resisting sexual aggression have the best chances of avoiding completed rape. Especially with acquaintances, there are significant social and psychological barriers to resistance. Novel vignettes depicting acquaintance rape were designed to enhance self-efficacy, reduce unrealistic optimism, and empower assertive resistance. Participants: The data were collected using a Web-based survey of 449 female college students from multiple universities in August–October 2014. Methods: Between-subjects mixed-methods design. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes and complete self-report measures of personal vulnerability, self-efficacy, and beliefs and intention about resistance. Results: Although vignettes did not impact self-efficacy, one vignette enhanced perceived controllability and decreased unrealistic optimism. Women who read about completed acquaintance rape described intention to use physically assertive responses at double the rate of women reading about successful resistance. Conclusions: As low-cost, easily disseminated materials, vignettes about sexual assault may enhance campus prevention efforts.     

Lionel Smith in Barbados, 1833–1836: imperialist and abolitionist rhetoric in emancipation-era Caribbean governance

After 20 years of service in the British Army in India, Sir Lionel Smith, KCB (1777–1842) was appointed Governor of Barbados and Governor General of the Windward Islands in order to enact the abolition of slavery in the West Indies. During his three-year tenure, Smith relied on two major rhetorical strategies to advocate for the rights of free Afro-Barbadians and enslaved/apprenticed people. In general, Smith invoked utilitarian arguments, derived from his experience in India, when presenting free Afro-Barbadian men’s demands for equal voting rights, but also resorted to a more humanitarian mode, characteristic of abolitionist rhetoric, when arguing for judicial system reforms that would benefit enslaved and apprenticed people. This essay analyzes the ways in which Smith’s positions resonated with or diverged from those of the Colonial Office, and from those of Barbadian people of color, based on correspondence with the Colonial Office, including two documents written by free men of color, and one by an apprentice. Although Smith was eager to apply the British colonial policy he experienced in India to the impending social changes in the West Indies, the Colonial Office was not as willing to draw these parallels, responding more enthusiastically to Smith’s use of abolitionist rhetoric.     

Multiculturalism and Disability: a critical perspective

In an effort to counter discrimination and powerlessness, the disability community has espoused sociopolitical and cultural factors as defining characteristics of disability identity. This view of disability has replaced the historical medical model of disability as a deficit, and has had important implications for social action, political agendas, legislation and overall quality of life for individuals with disabilities. This article reviews current multicultural thinking, and offers a critical view of the advantages and disadvantages of positioning disability within the emergent multicultural discourse. Implications for future thinking and action to promote equal opportunity and self-determination for persons with disabilities as a cultural group with a political agenda are then advanced.